Kolkata’s Street Dog Doctor, by Kaushik Sengupta

My story centers around a man Mr. Sandip Karan who loves street dogs and his love knows no bounds, unlike most dog lovers.

His home- cum -kennels houses 40 street dogs who are mostly sick–some have lost their legs, some suffer from liver ailments and some have cancer – but they are being treated with rare care and compassion by a self-taught vet who learned his lessons while assisting veterinary surgeons for years.

Now confident enough to successfully perform surgeries, Mr. Sandip Karan is lucky to have found assistants in his mother Mrs. Sarasti Karan and wife Mrs.Moumita Karan. He is not doing any charity, it is his profession. He does not believe in chaining the animals or caging them. They are left free to move around and take rest in his house. Quite popular in his area as ‘street dog doctor’, Mr. Karan loves to cook food for his ‘four-legged patients’. When called to treat a street dog in a faraway place, he sometimes brings home his ‘patient’ if the situation demands ‘hospitalisation’. After the ‘patient’ gets well under his treatment he ensures its safe journey to the place it comes from.

He has, till date, treated around 2500 street dogs in his own locality and the quite vast adjoining areas. Half of his ‘patients’ had cancer – those having vincristine cancer have been cured. Not all his neighbors take all these kindly subjecting the ‘doctor’ to their wrath. However, that does not prevent him from dreaming of a house (he does not want to call it a shelter) for his loved ones. He is trying to raise funds for his NGO Concern for Animal and Environment. His hobby is gardening. As a photographer I share his work and have joined him for the journey.

I am coming to India in September as my husband is working there for two weeks with his firm.
Is there anything I could bring out that would be useful for this work with the street dogs? Collars, leads,
that sort of thing? Would be really happy to help as he will be at work in the daytime so I will have some free time
and I very much love dogs!
Cheers Clare